We need to find our competitive spirit | Thoughts from Behind the Pressline

I was brought up to believe competition was good. Competition made everyone better. When you compete, you are always comparing yourself to others. You compare not only results but the path to success. How was that accomplished and how might I make changes that would allow me to achieve similar results.

Let’s face it, we all do it everyday. We see what works or what is popular and then try to emulate those traits.

In business, I read, watch and listen to many other community news organizations to see what they are doing, how they are doing it and how I might apply those approaches to our company. I also look at many comparisons of our company’s performance, looking for various trends, how those trends affect the health of the organization or how a specific trend might be leading us down a path we must alter.

That competitive approach leads me to look at a lot of different details and survey information, always looking for a nugget that might prove to be a valuable component in our company culture.

Well, here is a little detail I recently ran across that I found very interesting and compelling. While it affects our company, I believe it has far reaching affects on our society as a whole. It was the rankings of the happiest countries in the world. Sadly, the United States didn’t crack the top 10 list, but our neighbors, Mexico and Canada, did make the grade.

The USA used to be in the top 10. But for the last four years, we’ve failed to measure up. How can that be? Here we have a nation driven to succeed. A country carved out of the wilderness by self-made adventuring explorers, fearless pioneers and successful entrepreneurs. Success is a part of our DNA. As a nation we’ve always taken the competitive challenge and never failed to answer the call.

Dan Alexander is associate publisher of New Market Press and publisher and CEO of Denton Publications. He may be reached at dan@newmarketpressvt.com or dan@denpubs.com.